President Bush, in the Oval Office, with the Screwdriver

Last evening, over at BFA, this comment was posted in response to an earlier comment laying responsibility for this week's disaster at the Tallmansville, WV, mine directly at the Bush Administration's feet:

that is dispicable. There is no evidence to blame Bush on this accident in any shape or form. To do this is horrible.

This person, whom I'll call "Cowpoke," doesn't seem to see the clues to connect Bush and the WV mining disaster.

Here is a clue from David Seldin at The Gadflyer:

...the "scandal" out of the West Virginia mine disaster will be in how the media got it wrong, either because they went out with unconfirmed information or because the company lied to them.

That might be the "scandal" but it's not the scandal. We shouldn't let an interesting kerfuffle over how information got reported get in the way of the fact that 12 men died due to their employer's negligence, and thousands more are at increasing risk because of their government's indifference.

For years, as the power of the United Mine Workers has faded and the government's regulatory agencies have falled under the sway of industry, protections for coal mine workers -- won through some of the most fabled fights in American labor history -- have grown weaker and weaker. This didn't happen by accident, but by the design of a political movement that thinks America can only thrive by throwing some of us under the bus.

Here are some more clues via Think Progress:

1. President Clinton signed the International Labor Organization's Convention 176 concerning safety and health in mines, mining deaths dropped from 425 in 1970 to 85 in 2000.
2. While citations have been issued, the fines assessed for safety violations are too small to force large corporations to make improvements.
3. According to an AFL-CIO analysis, the Bush administration cut 170 positions from federal Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) and has not proposed a single new mine-safety standard or rule during its tenure.
4. Bush rewarded the coal industry (for raising $275,000 for him) by placing coal industry veteran Richard Stickler in charge of MSHA. Stickler spent about 30 years as a coal company manager with Beth Energy. Mines managed by Stickler were marked by worker injury rates that were double the national average, according to government data cited by the United Mine Workers union.
5. Bush has not requested budgets for OSHA or MSHA that even keep up with the rate of inflation and mandatory pay increases over the past several years while penalties for OSHA or MSHA violations remain laughably low.
6. And the administration has shut down any new worker protection standards in OSHA and MSHA.

According to Think Progress, "Jack Spadaro, former director of the MSHA National Mine Safety Academy, said inspectors told him privately that Labor Department opposition to vigorous safety regulation has hindered their work." (Another clue: Who made those appointments?)

So, Cowpoke, there is plenty of evidence to blame Bush for this event. He did nothing to prevent it, and his indifference and the actions of his administration made this tragedy inevitable.

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